This invention relates to an electronic cashless system for cashless commercial transactions.
The following three transaction forms are mainly used to enable cashless commercial transactions.
(1) A transaction with a credit card
When the customer makes a purchase, he shows a credit card issued by a bank for payment to a seller. Normally, the seller asks the issuer for an authorization to accept the credit card. If the acceptance is authorized, the purchase transaction with the credit card is executed. The seller then asks the credit card company for payment. The credit card company has banks related to the commercial transaction prepaid the sales amount from the customer""s account and credit it to the seller""s account.
(2) A transaction with a bank ATM card
When the customer makes a purchase, he shows the seller a bank ATM (automatic teller machine) card intended for depositing and withdrawing cash from an ATM. The seller asks the customer""s bank for payment through a POS terminal that can directly log onto the bank""s deposit ledger files at the point of sale. The bank immediately transfers the amount from the customer""s account to the seller""s account.
(3) A transaction with a prepaid card
The customer makes a prior cash purchase of a prepaid card from a seller or an automatic vending machine. After the customer inserts the prepaid card into the automatic vending machine and follows the necessary instructions, goods or services are provided and the appropriate amount is deducted from the prepaid card.
These three methods each have their disadvantages as follows.
(1) A transaction with a credit card
A. The seller has to ask the issuer for an authorization to accept the credit card and is required to do additional paperwork for creating invoices. Therefore, the use of credit cards is limited to purchases at retail outlets of higher priced goods and higher value-added goods.
B. To avoid a doubtful account or a situation, where not sufficient funds were deposited at the time of purchase, a credit card is issued only to the customers who pass a certain test.
(2) A transaction with a bank ATM card
A. The transfer of the amount from the customer""s account to the seller""s account must be made immediately after the execution of a transaction. Therefore, this requires an extraordinary processing during the bank""s non-business hours, which is different from an ordinary processing during the bank""s business hours. It also requires a work related burden for the seller and an account balance control burden for the customer.
B. Since the amount is transferred each time a purchase is made, the workload and expense are large.
(3) A transaction with a prepaid card
A. A prepaid or debit card is like a prepaid single use ticket. Thus, a one-time-only customer who does not buy the same kinds of products or and on the same shop repeatedly would not use such a card.
B. If a customer is asked to buy a prepaid card far in advance of his planned purchase of necessary goods and services, his current liquidity is reduced.
C. Since cash is required to buy a prepaid card anyway, it is not a true cashless commercial transaction.
Thus, although they have their particular applications, these cashless transaction methods do not constitute an almighty shopping means for everyone.
An object of the present invention is to provide completely cashless commercial transactions.
A feature of the present invention resides in an electronic cashless system comprising a cashless medium or electronic money for memorizing amount information and for performing an operation of amount information, an automatic transaction terminal device having a reading/writing means for writing amount information to the cashless medium, a center device having a deposit ledger file, connected with the automatic transaction terminal device, means for identifying the account balance of multiple accounts and for storing amount information and at least a non-settled fund file means for storing amount information written by the cashless medium and a seller ledger file means for identifying the account balance of the multiple seller""s accounts and for storing amount information.